Despite boyfriend's move, Jennifer Jones hints at return with team

Jennifer Jones was part of a group of athletes honoured in a ceremony hosted by Premier Greg Selinger at the Manitoba Legislative Building in Winnipeg on Thursday, March 27, 2014. (Chris Procaylo/QMI Agency)

WINNIPEG - The post-Olympic, curling carousel is in full spin mode, but gold-medallist Jennifer Jones doesn’t sound like someone who’s going to break up her team.

Tracked down after a ceremony at the Manitoba Legislature, Thursday — her team was awarded the Order of the Buffalo Hunt — Jones, 39, addressed her plans with reporters now that her significant other, boyfriend Brent Laing, has joined a team in Alberta.

“We haven’t really firmed up our future and what that means to our team,” Jones began. “I can’t imagine playing with anybody else. This news is pretty recent, so Brent and I will sit down over the next few weeks and figure out what that means for geography in terms of our family.

“I would be surprised if we don’t continue to play.”

Laing is leaving Glenn Howard’s Ontario rink to hook up with Brier-winning skip Kevin Koe on a new team that’ll spend the next four years trying to qualify for the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea.